And the Winner is.....
Lidia, "I was supposed to be graduating from college this past weekend, but I really could not pass up a trip to the Daytime Emmys, being the soapfan that I am.

So what was it like to win the ABC.com Emmys contest, you ask???

Our prize coordinator, Tracy, was really great. She took care of every detail, from randomly selecting my name from the eligible entries (several thousand, she told me) to coordinating the accommodations and travel arrangements. Tracy called me at work and I was so shocked -- I never win anything!!! My co-worker Shelia was there when I got the call and she was even more excited than I was!! It took a few days to sink in, then I had to start thinking about a dress and my hair- who had time to think about school and finals!! Several phone calls, emails and letters from Tracy later, we had all of our travel documents -- barely 3 days before we were set to leave for NYC!!! Well, I took my partner Marina with me, even though she isn't a soap fan, but boy was she was excited about going to NYC! She is a food writer, so this turned into another working vacation for her.

They flew us to NYC from San Francisco and put us up at a nice hotel located near the United Nations, on 42nd St. We had great drivers (all 3 of them). They were very friendly and helpful. At the hotel, the funniest thing happened. The bellman asked if it was our first time in NYC and Marina told him that I won the trip in an online contest and then told him that we were going to the Daytime Emmys the next night . Well, he turned out to be a GH fan!! He had watched GH from 4th grade through high school. He started watching because he was in the hospital as a child and there was nothing else on TV, so he got hooked. He was a huge Luke and Laura fan and liked Scotty too. It was too funny! Soap fans really are everywhere.....

The next day....Pre-Emmys.... we got in touch with 2 online friends, Karen and Laura, who were also attending the Emmys and then started to get ready! Karen and Laura met us at our hotel and we had dinner in the hotel restaurant. The restaurant was very accommodating with our time constraints since the limo was picking us up at 6:30pm. It was great to meet other GH fans in person. Then we were off to the Emmys in a lovely gray limousine.

The Emmys!!!.....Since we were in a limo and had tickets, they let us enter at the back entrance to walk the red carpet. We walked right in and were hanging out in the lobby area. There were several women staking out the area with cameras . We did manage to see a few people walk in -- Doug Davidson (Y&R), Barbara Walters, Alex Trebek from Jeopardy and Vincent Irizarry ( David, AMC) -- the women mentioned above accosted Irizarry (nicely) and got a bunch of pics with him. Then they (and everyone else without dinner tickets) got told to go back outside by security. Since Marina was the tallest of all of us, we handed her a camera and told her to take pictures of any GH people she saw. [She doesn't watch GH , but knows most of the actors/plots--she picks things up by osmosis, I guess...unofficially she likes Sonny/Brenda and Nikolas.] We waited outside with the rest of the fans to see if anyone else might show up and talked with several fans who had been hanging out outside for many hours! Someone had ordered pizza and another couple brought their dog and kept trying to get it on camera! Too funny!

Unfortunately, we found out that all of the GH actors had already arrived by that point and they were now having dinner. Then we were informed that we would have to walk all the way around to the front of the building to enter, because the back entrance was only for industry folks. So, off we went. We finally got inside Madison Square Gardens and found our seats. There were A LOT of ( very excited) fans there!!! The first part of our section (about 10 rows) was where some of the children's programs people were seated (Pinky and the Brain people, I think), then the rest of the rows were ALL FANS!!! About 13 rows x18 seats in each row x 3 sections = A LOT OF FANS!! And those were just the $200 tickets! It was so cool to be surrounded by so many soap fans! The energy was amazing!

We were seated right above the section where most of the GH /PC cast was sitting. [Should have brought binoculars! Next time...] As the stars began entering the theater I had my eyes peeled, looking for the GH cast. The woman sitting next to me had binoculars and kept announcing when she saw certain actors. We ended up in a section of nearly all GH fans, which was cool. As soon as I knew what they were wearing , it was easy to keep track of everyone. I found Jonathan Jackson (Lucky) first. He was sitting to the right of our section with his sister and brother, about the 4th row from stage. Becky Herbst (Elizabeth), in another one of her beautiful creations, was about 5th row, other aisle, with her boyfriend; her sister and Ingo Rademacher were sitting a few rows back on the end of other aisle, in the middle section. Sarah Brown (Carly) with hubby was right behind Becky. Tony Geary (Luke) was right up front on the right side. The no-shows were Tyler Christopher and Vanessa Marcil (Nik and old-Brenda), Steve Burton (Jason) and Maurice Benard (Sonny). Later caught sight of Julie Pinson (Eve, PC) in a pink dress accompanied by fiancé Billy Warlock (AJ) and Mary Beth Evans (Kat) [in the same dress she wore to Carly & AJ's engagement party! LOL]. Saw Stuart Damon (Alan), Jon Lindstron (Kevin), John Ingle (Edward) and Stephen Nichols (Stefan) looking very handsome and smiling a lot!

Having never been to an event that was televised, I had no idea there would be so many lights and cameras. Very cool. And hearing Dick Clark's voice throughout the night was very bizarre. I am old enough to remember him from American Bandstand!!

So as you know, Oprah started off the show presenting Rosie O'Donnell her Emmy for talk show host - she seemed genuinely surprised to have won! Next up was Younger Actor - a shoe-in for Jonathan Jackson, I was convinced...but why was I so nervous??? I don't even remember which scene of his they showed!! As soon as they said his name I (along with the rest of the GH fans) were on our feet screaming and cheering. I loved his Roberto Benigni impersonation and his tails were fabulous! He seemed genuinely excited, not as reserved as he usually is at these things. Next was Younger Actress category and I was really getting nervous now! I hoped and hoped it would be awarded to Rebecca Herbst. She definitely deserved it for her work this past year. But it was not to be. Heather Tom got it instead. I was very somber after that. Becky really had a great year, but there is always next year. But then Ben Stein's Money won its first Emmy! I was excited because I love that show and Ben and Jimmy are awesome together.

Being in the same theater with all of the soap actors was so cool, but to have Aretha Franklin singing too -- that was amazing! And even Wayne Gretsky was there, spending his first days of retirement at the Daytime Emmys!! And, of course, the most "excitement" happened while the cameras weren't rolling during the commercial breaks. Ingo Rademacher , Nancy Lee Grahn and Tava Smiley (Jax, Alexis and Chloe) had to walk up our aisle to get to the restrooms. So, of course, many fans tried to (discreetly) follow them. Several rows near me were empty for over 30 minutes. Later we heard that Ingo was "trapped" in the men's room, with Billy Warlock and Jason Shane Scott from OLTL. It seems that the ladies just wanted to chat with him. Nancy Lee really tried to rush up our aisle to avoid being noticed, but I don't think she succeeded. She returned with a GH production person by her side, for protection, I guess. But Tava Smiley was just casually walking up our aisle, then someone called to her (they called her Chloe) and she turned and smiled. She seemed amazed that anyone knew who she was! She was gracious and posed for a few pics. (She better enjoy it now because all of the anonymity will be history once she gets involved with Jax!)

Next up were 3 children's programming awards and then it was time for Best Supporting Actor. I hoped Stuart Damon would win, even though I didn't really like his storyline, he did a fabulous job and deserved to be recognized. He too was VERY excited to win. I loved that he ran up there with lipstick on his cheek, courtesy of his wife. I jumped up and cheered for him loudly. Next up was Outstanding Writing team. I had heard this might be a tight race, but GH pulled through! I was on my feet instantly, cheering and applauding. I was so glad that Michele Val Jean was honored for her courageous and very personal rape storyline, as well as the revisit of Laura's rape . Michele did a phenomenal job! And I finally got to see what Bob Guza looked like! [From where I sat he looked like Tim Robbins with gray hair...that is without binoculars, mind you].

After a few more awards were handed out, it came time for Lead Actor. I knew that Tony Geary deserved it the most and I hoped the Academy would agree. So it was fabulous when they called his name. Once again, I was on my feet, clapping so hard my hands hurt and after cheering/screaming for all of the GH winners throughout the night, I had lost most of my voice at this point! Then came Lead Actress. I wasn't all that familiar with the work of any of the actresses nominated, but who *didn't* know that this was Susan Lucci's 19th nomination! I think after all of this time she deserved it. I had heard that she had a powerful (not to mention educational) storyline surrounding Bianca's eating disorder. And so I was on my feet and cheering with the rest of the crowd. Everyone was on their feet and Susan barely got a word in the first few minutes!! She was great; so modest and genuinely grateful to be singled out.

Then Dick Clark told everyone that we were running late and so after the Best Show award was handed out, the winning soap had only enough time to say "Thank you" and that's it! And then.... GH won their 5th Emmy that night for Best show. Well, needless to say I leapt up from my chair and was so excited!! All of us GH fans went wild! Marina even got swept up in all of the excitement . She was cheering loudly for GH by the end of the evening. Have to give her credit for being such a good sport. In front of us was a gentleman who was obviously dragged along by his significant other. I think it was all too loud and crazy for him. He was plugging his ears, and his companion was screaming the loudest of all of us, right next to him!! It was so amazing to be able to be there in person to see GH win so many Emmys!!!